Oz Not Adopting Oddly Low Blood Alcohol Limit

It must be Australia week and, finally, a story that is not so much about weird culture as a weird misappropriation of science. Apparently officials in the Australian state of Victoria are not interested in following up on the idea of introducing a far lower blood alcohol content (BAC) limit:

The two men and two women registered blood-alcohol readings of more than .02 a half an hour after their drink, which they had consumed over 15 minutes. Light beer drinker Derek Byrne, 26, said although he was drinking on an empty stomach his reading of .035 was a shock. "I was surprised one light beer sent me over," Byrne, a carpenter, said. "I would have thought a light beer was definitely safe."

Who said it was unsafe? All that was shown is that 0.02 BAC could be measured. That is the thing about these systems. The "how it works" and "why it works" are not well discussed so folk leap to conclusions. Sure, Sweden has a BAC limit of 0.02 but that seems to be a way to deter all driving after drinking rather than to criminalize dangerous drunken driving directly. Does lowering the limit achieve that? Probably - but is that the only route? What if we think about the punishment rather than the crime. What if we leave the limit at 0.08 but make a mandatory minimum sentence of a month in jail for a first conviction. Who messes with that law? Far fewer - which, statistically, is also likely to lower deaths related to alcohol. What other factors are at play? This mid-90s discussion on the Swedish scene seems to suggest there are plenty of issues going on.

So, maybe it is about cultural weirdness after all. The sort of weirdness that allows people to permit the criminal law to act preventively rather than as a reaction to bad behaviour. Or the cultural weirdness that allows a bad-o-meter used by a lab coated lobbyist to convince someone that having one light beer is unsafe.

Maureen Ogle said this about the book: "... immensely readable, sometimes slightly surreal rumination on beer in general and craft beer in particular. Funny, witty, but most important: Smart. The beer geeks will likely get all cranky about it, but Alan and Max are the masters of cranky..."

Ron Pattinson said: "I'm in a rather odd situation. Because I appear in the book. A fictional version of me. It's a weird feeling."

Alan is apparently a Gen X-er who has hit 40... err...44... err... 45... YIKES... 46 ... [ZOW-WEE!!] 48... jessh, now 51... and edits and writes about other stuff at his personal website Gen X at 40. Please email Alan or any of the authors at this blog's gmail account - please write if you want to join the ranks of authors of this site or just want to send in a story on your favorite beer or photo of your regular pub.

I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.